[Ansteorra] PSA (Public Service Announcement)-Haflas and their impact to your artisans

[Adria Lorelle]

Thank you Your Excellency Kajira for posting this,esp. the part about needing to prepare before dancing/drumming. 
Adria


--- On Thu, 6/21/12, Kajira Camber <torinsmail at hotmail.com> wrote:


From: Kajira Camber <torinsmail at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Ansteorra] PSA (Public Service Announcement)-Haflas and their impact to your artisans
To: "ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org" <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>, "northern at lists.ansteorra.org" <northern at lists.ansteorra.org>
Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 1:45 PM



Please excuse the length, but as the Kingdom Middle Eastern Dance Champion, I feel that it is my responsibility to share with the populace of our awesome Kingdom a few concerns that have been voiced to me by many members of the Middle Eastern drumming and dancing community.  Please keep in mind, this is by no means saying that everyone feels this way, but many people have come to me with these feelings and I believe this information will help both the performers as well as the groups hosting the events.

You do not have to have a hafla at every event!
Have you noticed that a majority of our Kingdom’s events now have a hafla on its schedule?  In addition, have you noticed that the number of drummers and dancers at any given hafla has decreased in size?  There are now so many ‘scheduled haflas’ that those that regularly partake in them are feeling overwhelmed.  Many drummers and dancers are now burdened when they go to an event.  It is no longer ‘hey, how have you been,’ it is now, ‘hey, are you drumming at the hafla tonight?’  (And help them if they say no, then you have to deal with the person trying to make them feel bad for not doing so and how the hafla will be ruined unless they perform!  Even if you feel that you are joking around, that performer may have already been so harassed by this fact that it is no longer funny.  )  Even the newest and the best chivalric fighters take breaks from fighting at events, please refrain from harassing any performer who does so as
 well.   

If you do schedule a hafla, try to set up at least 3 drummers that will be participating in your drum circle.  
(edit to add: please, don’t put Master Lucais, Mistress Valia, and Master Ciaran (Kieron ) on speed dial for this…there are many drummers, check out your local group for interest.)
That way, if the ‘regulars’ aren’t interested or aren’t there, then you will still have a good hafla.  In one discussion with Master Ciaran, the idea was brought up that since drummers are required to bring their drum, what if part of a dancers’ props is a dance rug!  *poof* instant ad hoc hafla!

Don’t give the hafla a set start time, unless you are doing a competition.  
The artists that perform for these activities are doing it because of their love of the art.  You have to allow them to get their minds and bodies set to do hours of performing.  

If there are drummers and dancers at your event, there will be a drum circle!  
Many of us miss the organic experience of the impromptu circle.  You would wander or sit in camp and listen for that one drum off in the distance and go to join them.  Slowly that one drum builds into something magnificent!  Then, when the drummers and dancers have finally come to a break, bards would hop in and fill in that gap with upbeat and entertaining stories and songs…then it would start all over again!  

For those that I speak for (I am sure some bards included), this is what we miss.  We don’t need a pavilion….we don’t need veils…we don’t even need carpets!  We need one drummer and one dancer whose hearts and minds want to be freed and have the need to perform.  It is in this situation that the drummer and dancer truly become one and give the best performances.  Please understand that they are not performing for you, you are only a witness to the expression of their soul as it is manifested by the love of their art.  (But, we are very happy that you enjoy this action).

You only need to host the event, if the artists are there, they will come out and make the night’s heart beat and take you all along for the ride.

For the love of the art and the sanity of the Middle Eastern performance community, yours in service,
HE Kajira Camber  (Khayra bint Tahir ibn Rashid)
Current Kingdom Middle Eastern Dance Champion
Baroness of Wiesenfeuer                           
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